Pursued Sub-Four, Rewarded With Fifty
A Book Review by Paul O’Shea
Fifty Years A Runner,
My Unlikely Pursuit of a Sub-4 Mile
And Life As a Runner Thereafter
By William Blewett
Amazon, 181 pages, $14.95
No, not another logbook regurgitation, I grumbled before reviewing William Blewett’s new
book. Not another vanity entry in the personal history genre. I had false started.
Fifty Years A Runner is the compelling saga of an athlete who pursued a sub-four minute mile
with remarkable intensity. William Blewett tells us where he’s been and how his career might
inform other distance runners. His book is catnip for running historians, coaches, and younger
runners. It deserves wide readership.
Blewett began his career in Lawton, Oklahoma, as an unprepossessing high school miler. Later, at
the University of Oklahoma, he ran under the tutelage of Pan Am decathlon gold medalist and
successful coach J.D. Martin to whom the book is dedicated. “He accepted me as a freshman
walk-on even though I had never bettered five minutes in the mile…and I, thanks to his patient
coaching, became the runner I dreamt of becoming.”
J.D. Martin
A student of the history and physiology of distance running, Blewett saw that it took Bannister
seven years to make history, after the Englishman first broke five minutes. “Seven years to
reach my goal seemed about right,” Blewett said. But his plan was upended by overtraining
and injuries. William Blewett never did break four minutes. His best was 4:02.1. But he did run
for decades until injuries took their toll.
His time at the University was accomplished, but unfulfilling. Often, competing in the Big Eight
conference he admired Jim Ryun’s high kicking strides.
End of first lap of the Big 8 mile in Norman, OK
The 1966 indoor frosh mile in Kansas City brought him to a starting line with the Kansas
unicorn. “I rationalized that Ryun and I were not actually racing against each other. I had
merely shared the track with him, as a golf cart might share a four-lane highway.” Blewett was
lapped on the twelve-laps-to-the-mile track, but did not impede the Jayhawk, to the
appreciation of ten thousand spectators.
Nothing succeeds like excess the Sooner believed, so he increased his mileage in summer
training. Before his first collegiate season he ran 900 miles. Prior to his sophomore year his
body odometer read 1,220 miles. His higher mileage mitigation solution allowed a rest day each
week, but to compensate he increased the intensity on the training days. That spring his time
fell to 4:11.8.
In l968 he was recording vigorous interval workouts, with a 17-mile “recovery” day.
The Achilles tendon pain would last for two decades.
Not satisfied with chasing Bannister, Blewett was drawn by the novice marathoner Emil
Zatopek’s Olympic victory in l952. There were no entry standards to enter the 1968 U.S Olympic
Marathon trials. Because the Games were at Mexico City’s 7,382 foot elevation, the race was
held at Alamosa, Colorado’s 7,544 feet. Despite starting slowly, he nevertheless had little to
offer in the latter stages and finished 26th in 2:53.46.
In another road race outing he won the l973 Peachtree ten thousand in 31:22.
In 1970 he ran an invitational mile at the Houston Astrodome, with heats in the afternoon and
the final at ten that night. Blewett ran fifth to Marty Liquori in 4:07.2. In l971 the author ran
what would then be a mile personal best at the Kansas Relays, 4:04.8. Ryun broke the tape nine
seconds earlier.
Like a kid in a candy shop, William’s running history is one of over training, under resting, and
ignoring the consequences to his body.
There were cherished times when he ran like the wind. He called it “running like a deer,” what
cyclists call functional threshold power, or performing at peak level. He reached this level only about a
dozen times in his career. At other times he resembled a Zamboni.
Doubling at the Drake Relays (probably taking one for the team), an hour after running 4:09.5 in
the relay, he was introduced to steeplechase barriers. He placed next to last in 9:58.7, sixty-two
seconds behind the winner. “What my freestyle hurdling technique produced was the
juxtaposition of two incongruous sights: a pack of 18 runners flowing smoothly over the barrier
like a slinky on a staircase followed by a lone runner, me, cautiously mounting and dismounting
with full crotch contact.” Eighteen thousand spectators were amused as they cheered what
would be his only steeplechase.
Blewett received an undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma and a graduate
degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University. In his professional career he was a
senior research scientist and mechanical engineer. For more than forty years he also has been a
free-lance writer. In addition to Fifty Years A Runner, he wrote The Art of the Fastball, published
in 2013.
Of particular interest to readers of this website, Blewett and George Brose, the Vest’s publisher,
were University of Oklahoma runners and seeking the elusive sub-four minute mile. When
Blewett first entered the OU fieldhouse, his attention was drawn to the display board which
listed Brose as the university indoor mile record holder at 4:12.4. They met personally 45 years
later.
To introduce a theme or make a point in his book, Blewett pulls quotes from Shakespeare,
Hippocrates, and Beethoven from his creative kit. “I began writing the book in 2012….it took eleven
years. When I began to do so, the words flowed rapidly into a 24-chapter explanation of how I learned
the art and science of middle distance racing, including what I did right and what I did wrong in my
pursuit of a sub-four mile and how my performance declined in the 35 years.” The book’s preliminary
title was a leaden The Science of Running Faster. This writer believes Fifty is nifty.
Near the conclusion of Fifty Years, Blewett tells us: “In my thirties, I believed that my greatest
failure in life had been not breaking 4 minutes in the mile. My perspective then was all wrong,
however. Trying to break 4 minutes was an endeavor of which I am now most proud. In failing
to achieve sub -4, I found success. I studied and learned the science and art of runner training
in depth, gave my best effort, and ended my quest with greater knowledge, strength, and will-
power than I would have acquired had I quit running after my lone victory in high school.”
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Editing of this article and others by the author was provided by Tom Coyne of Kalamazoo,
Michigan.
Note from George Brose:
Every time I go into a bookstore or library, I'm amazed at the number of new books available on the subject of running, fitness, and lifetime training. Most of it is drivel, filled with a rehash of things most of us, except the absolute neophyte already knows. This is the book I wish I had had in my hands when I was fourteen years old, twenty years old, thirty years old, fifty years old or any day I was purporting to be a coach of athletes. William Blewett has taken a lifetime of running, a scientific mind, a gift of introspection, and a sense of humor to put together one of the best non-fiction books on running ever written. If you want to pass on something of value to your children, grandchildren, friends, and coaches, this is the book. If you don't believe me, read it first, then decide.
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